RIAH – Chapter 8: You Are Not Alone

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Xiao Yu was originally moved by Yan Jin’s act of personally cooking for him. But those tiny touching moments now disappeared into thin air.

Seriously.

How horrible would this fellow be till he’s satisfied?

Xiao Yu still remembered what Yan Jin had said yesterday — the reason why he named him Fishy was because tomato-stewed fish was delicious.

Ahhhh, is toying with human hamster feelings that enjoyable?

Xiao Yu who had been toyed around with was pissed beyond words.

In fact, Xiao Yu really had misunderstood Yan Jin. Taking ten thousand steps back, even if Yan Jin did mean it as a joke, it was probably to humor himself. Brushing aside the motive behind naming a hamster ‘Fishy’, even if he had named him ‘Kitty’, how would the average hamster have any thoughts on it?

Stewing the tomato that was also the ownership fund for Xiao Yu, even human Xiao Yu would need time to figure out the hidden meaning behind this matter, much less a hamster.

Noticing that Xiao Yu had suddenly stopped eating and lifted his head to look at him, Yan Jin naturally asked, “You’re full?”

Xiao Yu watched as Yan Jin reached his fingers towards him. Without a second thought, he launched himself forward for a bite.

Yan Jin did not expect Xiao Yu to have such a reaction; he almost got bitten. As he dodged Xiao Yu’s sharp teeth, he tried lifting him up from his back.

If you hadn’t bitten it, it wouldn’t have spoiled! Xiao Yu thought angrily, not realizing that his thoughts had already gone completely off-track.

He had sworn in his heart to never easily forgive Yan Jin for stewing his tomato. So, he turned on his back and faced Yan Jin with his butt.

That was an obvious expression of anger that made Yan Jin feel helpless. He wasn’t sure if Xiao Yu was ignoring him because the dish he cooked wasn’t tasty, or if he WAS angry because he had stewed that tomato. But seeing how Xiao Yu had been eating so heartily earlier, it doesn’t seem like it tasted bad. Which meant… he held a grudge because of that tomato?

Fifty seconds later, a chilled tomato fresh out of the refrigerator was placed in front of Xiao Yu.

Xiao Yu turned back and looked at Yan Jin, so the person pushed that tomato right before his eyes.

That was an obvious attempt to please him, which made Xiao Yu feel like his series of actions fueled by his anger was indeed stupid.

He was not even a real hamster, why did he get angry over a stewed tomato?

After figuring out his thoughts, Xiao Yu pushed that tomato to the side and rubbed himself against Yan Jin’s hand as he laid down obediently.

Yan Jin watched as Xiao Yu calmed down, thinking that the new tomato had worked. He continued watching as Xiao Yu flattened himself into a hamster cake. He smoothed his fingers down his back: “It’s about time, let’s go.”

Go? Go where?

Not waiting for Xiao Yu to figure out where they were heading to, he was lifted off his meaty back in the next moment. That kind of transportation style was unpleasant, far from the incomparably comfortable feeling of lying on a palm. Xiao Yu, who initially struggled for a while, then became obediently very quickly.

Because he realized that Yan Jin was walking towards the door.

They were heading out! He unexpectedly had a chance to head out!

It would probably be better if he was a dog or a cat, that would mean that he could still be brought out after a few days for a walk. But Xiao Yu’s race meant that he would not have such treatment. Xiao Yu had long prepared his mind to stay in a small, dirty cage for the rest of his life. Never had he thought that after just one day that the cage would be destroyed, and he would even be brought outside!

Was this the legendary saying, ‘Misfortune may be a blessing in disguise’?

Xiao Yu’s mood became extremely pleasant because of this surprise. That feeling that was maxing out his happiness meter instantly reached its peak as Yan Jin placed him into a worldwide renowned, limited-edition Lamborghini.

There’s no man who doesn’t love cars, especially this type of one and only super luxury car.

Xiao Yu excitedly ran in circles on the front passenger seat; he even thought of hopping to the backseat to look around.

This was Chairman Yan’s designated vehicle that was also the dream lover of countless men and women. In the magazine [Spreading Fire], this vehicle had always appeared together with Yan Jin. Some of Xiao Yu’s female colleagues had even tried to sneak into the opponent’s company’s carpark to snag a selfie with this vehicle as if taking a photograph with it was like getting a chance to sit in it. Xiao Yu once saw it from afar as he suppressed that sour feeling, making a promise to himself that one day, he would sit inside that kind of car.

A designer was indeed an extremely lucrative career, especially for a chief designer. However, because of Xiao Yu’s young age, plus the time he had taken charge as a chief designer wasn’t long, paired with some special reasons, all of it led to a situation where the money he could actually use was in fact very limited. He originally thought that he would need several more years before he could have a chance to get close to such a car, but who would have guessed that an opportunity would have come so soon, so unexpectedly.

Was leaving Xiao Yu on the front passenger seat a safe decision? What if he needed to pull the emergency brake? Maybe he’d get thrown out. But leaving him on the back seat would be even more worrisome – he couldn’t look after him, and it was possible for him to climb into the car trunk.

He tried pulling the safety belt around Xiao Yu a few times but grumbled at the squeaking and almost got his fingers bitten.

As if under the influence of the devil, Yan Jin opened his mouth and asked, “Can you remain properly seated? I’ll drive slower. Otherwise, I’ll have no choice but to put you inside that cage.”

As soon as Xiao Yu heard that, he quickly nodded his head in agreement.

“Squeakkk.”

No problem.

Yan Jin remained silent for a while before he finally closed the door and entered from the other side.

Xiao Yu almost died from laughter. He really didn’t understand what this Chairman Yan was thinking – was there a need to have a discussion with a hamster? No wonder he couldn’t keep a pet for long.

After getting onto the road, the highway drive that would originally take around fifteen minutes, under Yan Jin’s deliberate slow driving, became extremely slow like the speed of a crawling tortoise as the vehicle behind honked countless times. Xiao Yu didn’t really pay attention to that. Although he had agreed to be nice and obedient, as soon as the car started moving, he couldn’t stay still any longer as he rubbed his body here and there. After all, this was a legendary Lamborghini – the seats were truly first-class.

But he soon quietly sat back down on the passenger seat, innocently curling into a spherical shape, pretending like he was behaving obediently.

The reason being, Yan Jin had been staring at him for two minutes.

DUUUUUU—–

Two red lights had passed, but the Lamborghini stayed still behind the line. Xiao Yu suspected that the person that had been honking crazily from behind was prepared to get down to wreck someone’s car.

No wait, the opponent was a Lamborghini, he’ll probably at most call the police.

Seeing that Xiao Yu had finally settled down, Yan Jin then stepped on the accelerator.

As they reached their destination, Xiao Yu unconsciously felt guilty as he could feel Yan Jin’s obvious sense of relief.

With his small body, he could not see outside the windows. But he cleverly jumped onto the steering wheel and saw their destination from the front windscreen.

Rodent Lover Vet Clinic

What, Yan Jin specially brought him to a clinic? No way, didn’t that Chu Ge mention that he was fine yesterday?

Wait, wait, wait. Xiao Yu recalled his memories in detail; back then Chu Ge said that –

“I’m not in a position to determine if there’s really nothing wrong, you should bring it to the animal hospital tomorrow instead.”

It couldn’t be. Such a random suggestion and Yan Jin unexpectedly accepted it? Were there some details that he had left out?

Without waiting for Xiao Yu to set his thoughts straight, Yan Jin grabbed Xiao Yu out of the car.

There wasn’t a single visitor in the clinic except for an elderly woman settling accounts behind the counter – who was probably the manager. There was also a young lady that looked like she was a university student, who was playing with a Syrian hamster that was inside a cage.

The clinic wasn’t particularly spacious, it was around two hundred square meters. Minus the space that was occupied by the equipment, the majority of the space was used to house pets like hamsters, chinchillas, etc., and accessories like running wheels. There was a limited amount of free space left.

No matter how one looked at this store, it was unquestionably a commoner’s veterinary clinic. The decorations could barely be considered simple and tidy.

Xiao Yu turned around and looked at his owner. Because it was the weekend, Yan Jin was not dressed in a suit; he just had a simple black shirt accessorized with a random necktie. Yet, the glow he had from head to toe easily stood out from the masses, not even mentioning the wrinkle-free pants that he had on his pair of long legs. The exploding number of hormones he emanated was asking people to reach out for his belt for every minute that passed by.

It was not that Xiao Yu was exaggerating, but the moment Yan Jin entered that clinic, even the atmosphere itself had upgraded by a few levels.

The young lady in the clinic stood dazed as she stared at Yan Jin. Very quickly, she recognized who Yan Jin was.

For anyone that lived in S city, there was barely anyone who did not recognize Yan Jin. For the majority, however, they’d only seen this talented, young man on television and newspapers.

According to Chairman Yan’s famous habit of never mixing into a part of a community or spending time in any sort of entertainment ground, this young lady might have used up her entire life’s worth of luck to have such a ‘chance encounter’ with Yan Jin.

Xiao Yu sighed; he clearly understood how well-loved Yan Jin was among these young ladies. The fact that those junior designers had been feverously discussing not some famous designer but the opponent company’s chairman was like a fish bone stuck in his throat.

The clinic manager saw Yan Jin, so she walked over and smiled, “You must be the person that made the appointment today? I’ve understood the summary of the situation, I’ll bring your hamster in for a checkup. Please take a seat for a while.”

The store manager took Xiao Yu from Yan Jin’s hand and walked over towards the equipment. Midway, she scolded the young lady who was still dazed: “What are you daydreaming about? Hurry up and serve tea to the customer.”

Xiao Yu was brought inside by the manager to do different kinds of checkups. He was not a normal hamster, after all, so he complied with all the checkups. Especially those that required him to run on the running wheel and jump around — the fact that it seemed as if Xiao Yu understood human language – moving when required and stopping when asked to – made the manager marvel at it several times.

Very soon, the tests ended. The manager found a small pet carrier and placed Xiao Yu in it as she brought him out.

The checks that normally took at least an hour was done in twenty minutes. Xiao Yu was so proud, he even started squeaking before he was out of the room.

Yet the happy squeaking came to a halt when he saw the situation outside.

Yan Jin remained the same as before he had left for the tests, sitting upright on the couch. And although that young lady was standing, because she wanted to serve tea to Yan Jin, she bowed and purposefully leaned towards Yan Jin. If Yan Jin were to lower his head a bit, he would have brushed against her cheeks.

Then, Yan Jin cooperated accordingly and took that cup of tea from the serving plate and waved his hand.

The reddish-brown liquid spread itself in the air, splashing right across the young lady’s face!

The atmosphere was instantly filled with anxiety and mutual hostility.

Xiao Yu clicked his tongue in wonder.

Earlier, when he saw the young lady’s dumbstruck look, he had already guessed that there’d be a situation of her throwing herself into Yan Jin’s arms. Since he had overheard his colleagues discussing various scenarios that they had planned to act out to meet the Yan family’s Yan Jin, the method that this young lady thought of was definitely one of those scenarios.

Although it was a pity that Yan Jin’s reaction towards such scenarios was beyond the minds of these people. Perhaps it’s the impression that Yan Jin had – a cold and detached gentleman – that made those young ladies think that Yan Jin wouldn’t be unreasonable although it was hard to get close to him. A man with such superior qualities would never lay his hands on a woman.

Seems like they were completely wrong.

To truly understand the kind of person Yan Jin was, they needed to first be splashed with a cup of tea up-close.

It seemed like Yan Jin would not only lose a fangirl as he would most likely gain a veteran anti-fan.

If Xiao Yu could say something at this moment, he would definitely tell this young lady a very famous saying –

You are not alone.

That young lady looked like she wanted to scream. Her hair and the front of her clothes were completely drenched. The reddish-brown tea was still dripping off from her hair, making her look battered and hilarious.

But she dared not let out a scream as Yan Jin was watching her. His gaze made her feel like she was in an icehouse and her body was frozen. Even if she opened her mouth, no words could come out.

“I don’t care which country this tea is imported from. I’ve already said that there’s no need for it.”

Yan Jin placed the ceramic cup back onto the serving plate that the drenched young lady was still holding onto.

As if the scene was on pause, it looked eerily similar to a nobleman telling off a servant during medieval times.

Without a trace of politeness, rejecting and instilling fear that came naturally from his indifferent personality – that was the Yan Jin that Xiao Yu knew. It was the Yan Jin that he knew when he was still a human.

That was why Yan Jin could survive alone in that confusing and complicated circle.

Xiao Yu carefully compared the situation and immediately remembered that Yan Jin’s reaction towards people who approached him with ulterior motives and those who approached to please him was completely the same.

Maybe the former’s treatment was slightly better?

He recalled the scene where he confronted Yan Jin about his chief designer plagiarizing his work. Although Yan Jin did tell him off to a point where he couldn’t even reply, at least he did not splash water on him.